Mycobacterium leprae transcriptome during in vivo growth and ex vivo stationary phases.

Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, an obligate intracellular pathogen has the ability to survive and grow for extended periods within phagocytes and Schwann cells. M. leprae genome analysis predicts a highly degraded genome resulting in a significant loss of its genomic coding capacity. Detailed dynamics of carbon sources for energy utilization and growth of M. leprae is unclear. This study, therefore, presents M. leprae transcriptome during in vivo growth and ex vivo stationary phases, and explores metabolic pathways relevant to its growth from global gene expression data. This report provides a glimpse of some of M. leprae nutritional requirements for growth, which most likely, needs to be supplemented, in an axenic growth media.